Of course ... . But to address your new points (as you may also do mine): Here is where we disagree. But there is no way to know who is right or wrong ... at this point. But it's about Putin's wealth and lifestyle that he would be putting at stake. He doesn't care about "how the country is doing." Putin is not living a shithole life. He'll lose living lavishly; and with great power. What else is there? IOW, he'd lose everything he holds dear. Not if he wonders whether the US can recover quicker than Russia. Due to our years-of-having-a-much-larger-defense-budget-than-his; he must suspect that the US is better equipped to recover from full scale nuclear war than Russia is. (Bunkers. Supplies) You're currently correct. But we should go the distance, imo: My points are about our relationship with Russia. (1) A nation should never sit back and let your enemy get stronger and stronger because they're consuming victims you owe no real allegiance to--if you want to remain "the super power." This is exactly how Putin grew Russia's weak military to what it is now. We viewed him as a business partner while he quietly fixed Russia's military. (BBC News--TV) (2) Respect. What Russia did to our ally was disrespectful to us--the world super power. Sanctions is a weak response to that level of respect. And as a result, we'll see more disrespect. Disrespect needs to be properly dealt with, if order is to be maintained, imo. Just as Putin is respecting NATO nations, he should have also respected the fact that Ukraine is a US "ally." Yes, I understand we agree to disagree.
I don't think he cares about that at all,if he did he wouldn't be engaging in all this reckless behavior.He wants his legacy to be the strongest Russian President against The US.He cares far more about that than money.Kreshev has a legacy of a disgraced coward in Russia for what many consider backing down to the US during TCMC.Stalin has a bad rep for not getting a better deal against The US after WW2 .Yeltsin and Gorbachev are considered utter failures.Putin will not allow that to happen to him,even if it means nuclear war and losing a wealthy lifestyle.
Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD
This is a load of shit. Putin is a murdering scumbag. The Russian army is nowhere near as well organized as western militaries. If we’ve learned anything here it’s that the Russians wouldn’t last a week against US or NATO forces. They’re a second class military.
you won't hate them less,even if you chose to read it Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria Why do the USA, UK and Europe so hate Russia? How it is that Western antipathy, once thought due to anti-Communism, could be so easily revived over a crisis in distant Ukraine, against a Russia no longer communist? Why does the West accuse Russia of empire-building, when 15 states once part of the defunct Warsaw Pact are now part of NATO, and NATO troops now flank the Russian border? These are only some of the questions Creating Russophobia iinvestigates. He then delves into the historical, religious, ideological and geopolitical roots of the detestation of Russia in various European nations over thirteen centuries since Charlemagne competed with Byzantium for the title of heir to the Roman Empire. Mettan examines the geopolitical machinations expressed in those times through the medium of religion, leading to the great Christian schism between Germanic Rome and Byzantium and the European Crusades against Russian Orthodoxy. This history of taboos, prejudices and propaganda directed against the Orthodox Church provides the mythic foundations that shaped Western disdain for contemporary Russia. From the religious and imperial rivalry created by Charlemagne and the papacy to the genesis of French, English, German and then American Russophobia, the West has been engaged in more or less violent hostilities against Russia for a thousand years. Contemporary Russophobia is manufactured through the construction of an anti-Russian discourse in the media and the diplomatic world, and the fabrication and demonization of The Bad Guy, now personified by Vladimir Putin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34237648-creating-russophobia